Tag Archives: Iran

For millions of ethnic Kurds in Iraqi Kurdistan, Monday was a historic day. After a century of despair and neglect, they had the chance to vote for their own independence in a controversial referendum staged by the Kurdistan Regional Government — the body that holds sway over the predominantly Kurdish areas of northern Iraq. …

Iran halted flights to and from Kurdish regions in northern Iraq on Sunday in retaliation to a plan by the autonomous Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) to hold a referendum on independence. It also started wargames at the Kurdish border. The air embargo is the first concrete retaliatory measure against Monday’s …

Iran tested a new ballistic missile that is reportedly capable of carrying multiple warheads, the nation’s state-run broadcaster announced Saturday. Iran unveiled the ballistic missile Friday at a military parade in Tehran and successfully tested it the same day, Press TV reported. It said Iran released footage of the test-launch. …

By Graham Fuller Of all the peoples of the Middle East who have suffered through various wars and manipulations by the US and other foreign powers over the past century, the Kurds are probably the only people whose national cause has actually improved during the more recent geopolitical turmoil. On …

Iran will strengthen its missile capabilities and will not seek permission from any country to do so, President Hassan Rouhani said on Friday in an undisguised snub to demands by U.S. President Donald Trump. Tasnim news agency reported that Iran had announced a new ballistic missile with range of 2,000 …

Russia is “extremely concerned” by U.S. President Donald Trump’s comments questioning the Iran nuclear deal and suspects that Washington itself may have violated a landmark arms control treaty, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said. Lavrov’s comments, made to Russian reporters at the United Nations in New York and published by his …

By Emad El-Din Aysha I watched 6 Days initially with some hesitation since it was about a hostage situation involving Muslim terrorists. It tells the true story, the untold story, of the 1980 Iranian Embassy siege in London and the technically brilliant SAS operation that saved the day. The …

Israel and the U.S. inaugurated the first American military base on Israeli soil on Monday, which will serve dozens of soldiers operating a missile defense system. The move comes at a time of growing Israeli concerns about archenemy Iran’s development of long-range missiles. Together with the U.S., Israel has developed …

Iran and the United States on Sunday tore into each other’s behavior regarding the 2015 nuclear deal as America’s top diplomat and Iran’s supreme leader traded accusations of backsliding on agreed-to commitments. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson acknowledged that Iran is in “technical compliance” with its obligations under the pact …

The Iraqi Kurdish parliament has voted to back an independence referendum in the face of opposition from across the globe. The Kurdistan Regional Government, sitting for the first time in two years, backed the 25 September vote on Friday. Iraq’s central government rejected the referendum as unconstitutional on Tuesday. Iran, …

By Sara Safa “International sanctions” is a new term in international politics and a new strategy or political instrument that came more operational in the early 1970’s after US withdrawal from the Vietnam war amid several challenges and a real economic pressure that the US had to face especially after …

A division of Iran’s Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) says it has arrested a Takfiri terrorist linked to a Daesh-affiliated ring, which planned to carry out hundreds of terror attacks in the capital, Tehran. The Daesh element was apprehended in the Andisheh town in Shahriar County, Tehran Province, Colonel Amin …

Syria has signed a contract to buy Iranian power generation equipment for the country’s war-torn city of Aleppo, according to Syrian state news agency. The agreement was reportedly signed by Iran’s state-run Mabna company during a visit to Tehran by the Syrian Electricity Minister Zuhair Kharboutli. The deal is valued …

An Iranian commander issued a warning to an American Navy ship after it changed course and approached Iranian vessels. Iranian Navy’s Falakhen missile boat, while saving an Iranian fishing vessel which was sinking in Persian Gulf waters due to a technical issue with the engine, issued a warning message to …

Israel’s defence minister on Thursday issued a veiled warning to Syria, without confirming or denying what Damascus said was an Israeli air strike on its territory. Syria’s army accused Israel of hitting one of its positions, killing two people in an attack earlier the same day that a monitor said …

Saudi Arabia said on Tuesday that Iran’s talk of a possible rapprochement with the kingdom was laughable. Saudi Foreign Minister Adel al-Jubeir told reporters in London that Iran would have to change its policies for any rapprochement. Iran’s foreign minister, Mohammad Javad Zarif, last month said the Islamic Republic would …

Syrian government forces on Tuesday reached troops besieged for years by Islamic State in the eastern city of Deir al-Zor, the militants’ last major stronghold in Syria, the army said. Tanks and troops pressed quickly toward a government-held enclave in the city, where Islamic State has trapped thousands of civilians …

With a sudden lunge through jihadist lines, the Syrian army and its allies on Monday came to within 3 km of relieving the Euphrates city of Deir al-Zor, where Islamic State has besieged 93,000 civilians and an army garrison for years. The advance on the eastern city marks another stinging …

Iran’s air defenses have forced an approaching U.S. spy plane and a reconnaissance drone to change course near its air space over the past six months, a military official was quoted as saying on Sunday . Brigadier General Farzad Esmaili, commander of the Iran’s air defense force, said an unmanned …

The US-led coalition in Syria yesterday said it would keep blocking a convoy of evacuated Isil militants in the Syrian desert from reaching Isil-held territory on the Iraq border. The hundreds of fighters recently surrendered an enclave on Syria’s border with Lebanon. They agreed with Hezbollah and the Syrian government …

Iran has dismissed a U.S. demand for United Nations nuclear inspectors to visit its military bases as “merely a dream”. It also said the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) was unlikely to agree anyway. The U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, Nikki Haley, last week pressed the IAEA to seek …

Hamas and Iran have patched up relations, the Palestinian militant group’s new leader in Gaza said on Monday, and Tehran is again its biggest backer after years of tension over the civil war in Syria. “Relations with Iran are excellent and Iran is the largest supporter of the Izz el-Deen …

Few names in US policy circles have become as synonymous with the Syrian uprising as that of the last US ambassador to Syria, Robert Ford. His 2011 visit to Hama, where people poured on to the streets to protest against Syrian president Bashar Al Assad, was seen as a pivotal …

Proposed tighter U.S. sanctions on Hezbollah have been altered enough to allay fears of major damage to Lebanon’s economy, a sign Washington is taking concerns about Lebanese stability seriously, banking and political sources said. But banking figures told Reuters Lebanese authorities should not be complacent as U.S. President Donald Trump’s …

Qatar restored full diplomatic relations with Iran on Thursday, the latest volley in an 11-week-old geopolitical feud that has set the tiny yet fabulously wealthy Persian Gulf nation against its neighbors and rattled a previously placid part of the Middle East. Qatar’s Foreign Ministry announced that it was sending its …

The United States wants to know if the United Nations atomic watchdog plans to inspect Iranian military sites to verify Tehran’s compliance with a 2015 nuclear deal, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, Nikki Haley, said on Tuesday. Haley will meet with International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) officials in …

An Israeli television report said on Tuesday that Iran is building a facility in northwest Syria to manufacture long-range rockets, and showed satellite images it said were of the site under construction. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned last week that Iran was strengthening its foothold in its ally Syria …

Iran’s president has issued a direct threat, claiming his country is capable of restarting its nuclear program within hours. Hassan Rouhani says it could be done “in an hour and a day” if Washington continues with “threats and sanctions” against Iran. He says that once restarted, the program could quickly …

Iran’s parliament has voted in favour of boosting investment in its missile defence and foreign operations programmes by more than $500m (£386m). The bill, which received overwhelming approval, is in response to the latest round of US sanctions against Tehran. The US imposed sanctions after a ballistic missile test in …

Iran is holding talks with European planemaker Airbus to buy 48 helicopters for civilian use, an Iranian official was on Saturday quoted as saying, as Iran continues its shopping spree of Western aircraft after the lifting of sanctions. “The Health Ministry is planning to order 45 HEMS (Helicopter Emergency Medical …

Iran’s Revolutionary Guards have started using a new route across the Gulf to funnel covert arms shipments to their Houthi allies in Yemen’s civil war, sources familiar with the matter have told Reuters. In March, regional and Western sources told Reuters that Iran was shipping weapons and military advisers to …

The United States imposed sanctions on Friday on six subsidiaries of a company key to Iran’s ballistic missile programme, citing continued “provocative actions” like Tehran’s launch of a rocket capable of putting a satellite into orbit. Iranian state television reported on Thursday that Iran had successfully tested a rocket that …

Iran successfully tested a rocket that can deliver satellites into orbit, state television reported on Thursday, an action the United States said breaches a U.N. Security Council resolution because of its potential use in ballistic missile development. Iranian state television showed footage of the firing of the rocket, mounted on …

A US Navy ship fired warning shots at an armed Iranian patrol boat Tuesday in the northern end of the Persian Gulf, according to two US defense officials. The Iranian boat is believed to have been operated by the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps, according to a defense official familiar with …

Congress will consider imposing new sanctions on Russia and Iran as well as North Korea, after Republicans and Democrats agreed to changes that will allow the legislation to move ahead. The bill also aims to prevent President Trump from relaxing sanctions without lawmakers’ consent. An earlier form of the sanctions …

Iran announced the launch of a new missile production line on Saturday, according to state media, against a backdrop of tension between the United States and Tehran. The Sayyad 3 missile can reach an altitude of 27 km (16 miles) and travel up to 120 km (74 miles), Iranian defense …

By Graham E. Fuller Every once in a while President Trump manages to get something right. This time it is the decision to call off the broad US covert assistance to the Syrian opposition forces fighting against Syrian President Bashar al-Asad. Asad has been notoriously brutal in putting down the …

Two men have gone on trial in Saudi Arabia charged with spying for Iran and plotting to attack a major oil pipeline, two Saudi newspapers reported on Wednesday. In a rare espionage case involving the two arch-rivals, the Saudi teachers face charges of gathering information on the East-West Pipeline of …

President Trump agreed on Monday to certify again that Iran is complying with an international nuclear agreement that he has strongly criticized, but only after hours of arguing with his top national security advisers, briefly upending a planned announcement as a legal deadline loomed. Mr. Trump has repeatedly condemned the …

THE LEVANT EXCLUSIVE — By Emad El-Din Aysha, PhD — If you want to understand how things are done in the Arab world, the inner working of Arab politics, you have to keep your ear close to the ground. You can access to little titbits of information, raw data, that you’d …

France wasted no time in rebuilding its economic ties with Iran since international sanctions were lifted as part of Tehran’s nuclear deal with world powers. In early 2016 — just after the sanctions began to roll back — France made deals with Iran to sell Airbus commercial jets, return carmaker Peugeot …

Saudi Arabia and three other Arab states have extended the deadline for Qatar to accept a list of demands or face further sanctions by 48 hours. The initial deadline for Qatar to agree to the group’s 13 demands, including the shutting down of the Al Jazeera news network, expired on …

What on earth does “objectively progressive” mean—and how could Donald Trump be viewed as a “progressive” of any kind? It may have been Karl Marx who first used the term—in a way that turns reality upside down. Basically it means that a leader or a political trend that clearly is …

The Wall Street Journal has fired longtime foreign affairs correspondent Jay Solomon for what it said was a violation of “his ethical obligations as a reporter.” The paper announced the move minutes before The Associated Press reported that Solomon was offered a 10 percent stake in a company headed by …